It’s been a week (or couple of weeks) of new arrivals as we move into spring and the spring migrants are making their way back to our shores. In the last two weeks we have recorded the following species back on site – little ringed plover, sand martin, swallow, chiffchaff, willow warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap and yellow wagtail. It won’t be long now either before we are seeing and hearing plenty more spring migrants and some species to look out for include cuckoo, hobby, common tern, reed warbler, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat and garden warbler. I never cease to be amazed by migration and love to see these birds returning after a long, cold winter.
Insects are also a common sight now on warmer days with 5 butterfly species recorded so far (see previous blogs). Queen bumblebees are now out in good numbers, flying around looking for somewhere to start their nests. If you see a small (c.10mm long), very furry looking bee with a bright chestnut/red coloured thorax and abdomen – this is the tawny mining bee, or Andrena fulva. They are a common spring-flying solitary bee species in England and Wales and build their nests underground, with the nest entrance often surrounded by a mound of excavated spoil. Take a close look and see if you can distinguish the males from the females. The male will have a tuft of white hairs on the face, lacking in the female.
New plants in flower this week include red dead-nettle, ground ivy and cuckoo-flower. Cuckoo-flower, also known as Lady’s Smock, or Cardamine pratensis, is a lovely delicate looking light pink flower and is the larval foodplant of the orange-tip butterfly. Look for the butterflies appearing this month and flying into May and the beginning of June.
Onto some reserve news and we had a successful volunteer Sunday on the 3rd April , rebuilding the viewing screen which is now complete and ready to use! We prepared a good bag load of reed seeds, which were scattered out on Phase 2 by the volunteers yesterday. We covered a good area at the eastern end of Phase 2, which will supplement the developing reedbed nicely. Also on site we have completed some well needed fencing repairs around the woodland, taken down the polytunnel ready for re-building and re-covering with polythene in time for the growing season and started our bird and insect surveying.